Wolfgang Holzer (Mayor)

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Wolfgang Holzer , also Holczer , originally a bowl washer (* around 1420 , no later than 1424 in Stein on the Danube or Preßburg or in or near Vienna ; † April 15, 1463 in Vienna) was an Austrian cattle dealer , merchant and councilor of the city of Vienna. In the history of the city of Vienna, his time as mayor in the turmoil of the 15th century is considered the high point of Vienna's political independence.

origin

Wolfgang Holzer was the son of Stefan Schüsselspüler (died before 1434) from Kilb (today: Melk District, Lower Austria) and his wife Kathrei (Katharina). In 1425 his parents bought a house in what would later become Alservorstadt (on Alser Strasse) in front of the Schottentor of the city of Vienna. After the death of his father, his mother married the baker Hans Holzer around 1434 . Mother and stepfather managed to acquire more houses and vineyards in the Vienna suburbs, but not in the city itself.

As a merchant and cattle dealer, Holzer, who took his stepfather's name, achieved considerable wealth. In 1442 he was first documented as a lender, in 1443 he acquired half of a house on the old meat market and thus established a foothold in Vienna. By skillfully exploiting family relationships and trading activities, he managed to rise into the middle-class upper class of Vienna within a few years. Between 1443 and 1456 he is documented as the owner of three different houses on the meat market . Later he lived in a house on Stock-im-Eisen-Platz with one interruption from 1456 to 1458 .

Holzer's first marriage was to Barbara (died before 1445), a daughter or relative of Erhart Griesser . After his death on August 24, 1445, he bought his house cooperative and thus became a partner in the civil consortium for coinage and trading in precious metals. Soon afterwards he married Margret (born 1430; died between 1482 and 1486). She was a daughter of Lukas Neunburger from Stein an der Donau and the stepdaughter of the successful businessman Kristan Wissinger, who came from the Kempten area in the Allgäu. Both of Holzer's marriages remained childless. In the 1450s, Holzer was the guardian of Jakob Kraucker (born around 1442/1444), the son of the councilor Philipp Kraucker, who married his widow after Holzer's death.

Holzer's coat of arms shows two logs standing on top of each other in the shield, the helmet is shown with two horns.

Political career

At the beginning of the 1450s, Holzer developed his first activities in the city politics of Vienna, where he made a name for himself as a supporter of Ulrich von Eyczing . In 1452 he worked as a member of the Mailberger Bund in the "liberation" of Ladislaus Postumus from the guardianship of Friedrich III. with and has been for this commitment with the function moneyer of Vienna rewarded, he held from 1452 to 1456, he was simultaneously 1453-1455 councilor .

In the conflicts of interest between Ulrich von Eyczing and Count Ulrich II. Von Cilli , the advisers of King Ladislaus, he supported the Eyczinger and was one of those circles that pushed through the dismissal of Count von Cilli in 1453. He should also not shy away from his personal defamation. After the fall of the Eyczinger, in which the count regained his previous position in 1456, Holzer was imprisoned for months and severely tortured . He was threatened with death by beheading, at last he was banished from Vienna and found refuge in Pressburg due to long-term business contacts and family relationships .

After Count Ulrich was killed by Ladislaus Hunyadi and his followers in Belgrade on November 9, 1456 , Holzer returned to Vienna, where he is proven to be councilor again from October 31, 1457 to 1460, and was again a mint master in 1460 and 1462. Opll attributes the fact that Holzer did not return to Vienna immediately after the murder of Count Ulrich because the council was occupied by political opponents at the time and he therefore only dared to return to Vienna when there was a "new election" where Jakob Starch, one of his fellow sufferers from the time after the fall of Eyczinger, became mayor of Vienna.

Mayor of Vienna

In the disputes over the rule over the Duchy of Austria "under Enns" after the death of King Ladislaus Postumus , he agitated on the side of Archduke Albrecht VI. After the latter failed to take the city of Vienna, which he temporarily besieged in August 1461, the Mayor Christian Prenner became the councilor loyal to the emperor (which was reviled by his opponents as "the Heckler") through an uprising under Holzers Leadership overthrown and captured. As a result, Holzer was elected Mayor of Vienna on August 12, 1462. After the emperor came to Vienna at the end of August 1462, he did not recognize this election and had Sebastian Ziegelhauser elected as the new mayor and council on September 7th in the castle . However, the council resisted and re-elected Holzer mayor on September 19th. On September 23, he took the oath to the emperor, who now recognized Holzer's assumption of power. With the threat to the area around Vienna from plundering groups of mercenaries, the situation between the emperor, the mayor and the council finally came to a head. On October 6th, the emperor was announced the feud by the council, which resulted in the siege of the Vienna Hofburg . Holzer is said to have used the arrest of supporters of the emperor and the confiscation of their houses for his personal gain. After the city of Vienna and Archduke Albrecht VI. officially allies, the siege was lifted after the intervention of the Bohemian King George on December 4, 1462, after a treaty between the emperor and his brother had been concluded. Albrecht then officially took over the rule of Austria under the Enns on December 26, 1462, and Friedrich retired to his residence in Wiener Neustadt, from where he tried to take further measures against the city of Vienna and his brother. Holzer and his advice were reaffirmed for 1463.

In the treaty, the exchange or the release of the prisoners and the return of the property that had been alienated from the emperor and his followers had also been decided. It was precisely this provision that was uncomfortable for Holzer and his allies, as it began to crumble the support they had in the broader social classes in Vienna. Holzer had tried in vain to prevent the conclusion of the contract by delaying tactics.

death

The events that ultimately led to Holzer's execution seem rather opaque. It seems that Holzer had already established contact with the imperial camp in December 1462, after the official conclusion of the contract, or that contact had been made from this side. The situation is likely to have worsened over the next few months, whereupon Holzer allowed a troop loyal to the emperor to enter the city in April 1463. Whether it is actually a putsch in favor of Friedrich III. acted or Holzer only wanted to exert pressure on the Archduke with this show of force is not clear, in any case his undertaking went completely wrong. Holzer left Vienna, but returned secretly a few days later, was recognized near Vienna and captured and tortured again. By order of Albrecht VI. he was sentenced to death by quartering , which was carried out on April 15, 1463. His head and hand were then planted on an iron pole at the outer gate near St. Niklas in front of the parlor gate. Six exponents of the bourgeoisie, allied with Holzer and also sentenced to death, were beheaded. While they graciously asked Albrecht to be executed with the sword and were granted this, the Archduke at Holzer stuck to the type of execution originally intended for everyone.

Wolfgang Holzer in contemporary sources

In contemporary sources, Wolfgang Holzer gets off relatively badly, for example with Johannes Hinderbach or Michael Beheim , who in Michael Beheim's book about the Viennese 1462-1465 reports on the siege at the Hofburg , which he witnessed himself as a follower of the emperor, and also gives interesting details about Holzer, like that this atheist would have been. It should be noted, however, that most of the information about Holzer was provided by people who can be classified as his opponents.

evaluation

Wolfgang Holzer, who is often seen as the “tribune of the people”, is considered to be one of the most colorful personalities of late medieval Vienna. The course of his career shows, on the one hand, great ambition and, on the other hand, determination and toughness. The fact that he was not ready to confess even after repeated torture suggests that he has good nerves and enormous willpower. In his political activities he seems uncompromising, but always seems to have his personal advantage in mind, which could be the reason for his political inadmissibility, which he has been said to be. At least his support for Archduke Albrecht VI. between 1458 and 1462 it was more likely to be due to political circumstances than to an actual following. His actions against political opponents show that he must have been quite vengeful and probably also greedy. It may be that his personal experiences after Ulrich von Eyczing's overthrow and later defeats such as the temporary loss of the office of mint had a strong impact on him. When dealing with higher-ranking people, e.g. B. in negotiations, he is said to have appeared very self-confident, he is said to have unusual, rough manners. He undoubtedly possessed an enormous rhetorical talent with which he could win over different strata of the population for himself or his cause.

literature

Reports, 15th century

  • Michael Behaim (author), Theodor Georg von Karajan (ed.): Michael Beheim's book of the Viennese 1462–1465 , P. Rohrmann, Vienna 1843 ( Online-1 and Online-2 in the Google book search), further edition 1867 ( Online-1 and Online-2 in Google Book Search).
  • Michael Behaim (author), Theodor Georg von Karajan (ed.): Michael Beheim's book from the Viennese 1462–1465 , Carl Hölzl, Vienna ( online in the Google Book Search USA ).

Fiction

  • Benedikt Naubert : Ulrich [!] Holzer , Roman, 1792.
  • Eduard Breier : The book of the Viennese. Historical novel , EF Steinacker, Leipzig 1846 (novel after Michael Beheim).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Year and place of birth according to Ferdinand Opll: Life in medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 175.
  2. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Holzer in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna , accessed on January 18, 2017.
  3. ^ Ferdinand Opll: Life in medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 175.
  4. ^ Ferdinand Opll: Life in medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 176f.
  5. ^ Ferdinand Opll: Life in medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 176.
  6. ^ A b Richard Perger: Die Wiener Ratsbürger 1396 to 1526. A handbook (= research and contributions to Viennese city history 18). Vienna 1988, p. 214.
  7. ^ A b Ferdinand Opll: Life in Medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 177.
  8. ↑ Ferdinand Opll - Peter Csendes: From the beginnings to the first Turkish siege of Vienna (1529). 2001, p. 163.
  9. ↑ December 26, 1462 Archduke Albrecht VI. takes over the government in Austria under the Enns . Lower Austria State Museum.
  10. ↑ Ferdinand Opll - Peter Csendes: From the beginnings to the first Turkish siege of Vienna (1529). 2001, p. 165.
  11. ↑ Ferdinand Opll - Peter Csendes: From the beginnings to the first Turkish siege of Vienna (1529). 2001, p. 165f.
  12. ^ Ferdinand Opll: Life in medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 179f.
  13. ^ Ferdinand Opll: Life in medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 104.
  14. ↑ Execution at the pig market at www.diekriminalisten.at , accessed on January 18, 2017.
  15. ^ Ferdinand Opll: Life in medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 148.
  16. ^ After Ferdinand Opll: Life in Medieval Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, p. 180.
personal data
SURNAME Holzer, Wolfgang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holtzer, Holczer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian cattle dealer, merchant and mayor of Vienna
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Stein an der Donau or Pressburg
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1463
Place of death Vienna